IDIOSYNCRASIES ASIDE, BELICHICK MIGHT BE NFL’S ALL-TIME BEST, OR CLOSE TO IT

INDIANAPOLIS 
Bill Belichick is a cheat. He’s probably not the only one, but his big mistake was getting caught. Bill Belichick is dour, obsessed (“Consumed,” is how he puts it), a sourpuss with the personality of an oyster. And he’s certainly not the only football coach with those characteristics, football coaches being reclusive, crazy, or both.

But if the enigma under the hoodie isn’t the best professional coach the game has known — and no matter what you think of him, he’s at least close — New England’s Belichick is certainly unique. Because no great coach has done more with less.

He is a wonder, a coach/general manager whose program many a football man — including Chargers GM A.J. Smith — has attempted to copy or at least resemble. It hasn’t happened, not to this extent. It only works for Belichick.

Think of the great coaches and teams of the past 50 years. Vince Lombardi and the Packers. Chuck Noll and the Steelers. Tom Landry and the Cowboys. John Madden/Al Davis/Tom Flores and the Raiders. Don Shula and the Dolphins. Joe Gibbs and the Redskins. Bill Walsh and the 49ers. Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys. Bill Parcells and the Giants.

They all had great players. In many cases, multiple Hall of Fame players. In many cases, players good enough to be in the Hall but haven’t been voted in. Just as an example, three worthy Raiders — Cliff Branch, Ken Stabler and Ray Guy — continue to be left out, possibly because so many of their teammates already are in.

William Stephen Belichick took over the Patriots, who were nothing, in 2000 after an unsuccessful stint from 1990-1995 as head coach of the Browns. “He was misunderstood,” says Patriots defensive tackle Gerald Warren, who played in Cleveland after Belichick was long gone. “Similar to how I feel. Just misunderstood.”

Sunday’s will be his fifth Super Bowl with New England and he will attempt to become the second coach to win four. If you include his time as an assistant (with New England and the Giants) this is his eighth Super Bowl appearance.

And there has been but one constant during this run, quarterback Tom Brady. Unlike all the other coaches that have come before him, he has done it with just one certain Hall of Famer, Brady.

You have to give kicker Adam Vinatieri a shot — it’s doubtful Belichick would have his rings had it not been for Vinatieri, in that all three Super Bowl wins were by three points — but it’s hard for kickers to get into the Hall. The one pure kicker who’s in, Jan Stenerud, shouldn’t have made it in the first place.

“He’s the best of the best,” says Dick Vermeil, who coached the Rams to a Super Bowl victory. “When you evaluate the game and the history of the game and what he’s done in Super Bowls, nobody has done better. Maybe they’ve been as good, maybe some guys are his equal, but remember, he isn’t finished. He’s ahead and he’s not finished.”

This is an amazing accomplishment. Belichick will suit up but five starters from the 2007 team that lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and just two players — Brady and tackle Matt Light — have been on all five Super Bowl teams.

“And the assistant coaches and personnel people, don’t forget that,” the Chargers’ Smith says. “He keeps finding good people and good players, and you don’t go to a 7-Eleven to find them. He just gets new people who buy into the ‘Patriot Way.’

“I think he’s one of the great coaches of all time, but I felt that way long ago, before all his accomplishments. He’s the absolute decision-maker. He runs the operation, and it’s incredible that a coach/general manager can have his finger in everything and be so consistent. I marvel at his philosophy and his ability to execute his philosophy.”

What people — especially the media — are marveling at here during Super Bowl week is Belichick’s mood. He’s smiling. He’s almost likable. The players say the Belichick we’re seeing here is the Belichick they see every day. “He’s always in a good mood,” says receiver Deion Branch, which really is hard to believe.

Maybe it’s because he’s sleeping well.

“Like a baby,” Belichick says. “At the end of the day I have no problem rolling and putting my head on that pillow and I’m out.”

What he has a problem with is talking about Cheatgate, when the Patriots used video equipment to take pictures of the Rams’ walk-through before New England’s first Super Bowl win.

“We’ve moved on from everything in the past,” he says. Not smiling.

But there’s no question, no matter what he does Sunday or in the future, he’s going to be tainted because of it. If he did it once, you have to figure he did it before. No excuses. As Smith says, nothing in that organization goes on without Bill Belichick knowing about it.

But whatever the reputation, whatever the tarnish, the man wins and does so with a different recipe every year. He’s a great coach. Doesn’t make him a great man, but he is a great coach.